Spielwarenmesse announces nominees for the ToyAwards 2020

Events Toy

• 772 innovations entered by 422 exhibitors

• Awards Ceremony at the Opening Show on 28 January

At the Spielwarenmesse, outstanding innovations are always in high demand with buyers and retailers – after all, it’s the new ideas that drive retail sales. The 71^st edition of the Spielwarenmesse has a huge offering of new products for visitors. Around 120,000 innovations will be featured at the most important industry gathering from 29 January to 2 February. To help trade visitors in their search for creative ideas, the event’s organiser, Spielwarenmesse eG, presents the ToyAwards to exceptional exhibitors every year. The prize ranks among the most coveted accolades in the industry. The Awards go to innovative products in the four age-specific categories Baby & Infant (0-3 years), PreSchool (3-6 years), SchoolKids (6-10 years), Teenager & Adults (10 years and older) as well as in the Startup segment (for companies trading for less than 5 years).

For this year’s ToyAwards, 422 exhibitors entered a total of 772 innovations. In the digital preliminary round, the registered products were judged by an expert jury on the basis of the criteria fun factor, originality, accessibility of the product concept and potential for success at retail. The jury shortlisted the most promising innovations which were then sent in by the exhibiting firms to be judged in the second round.  During a meeting in the run-up to the world’s leading toy fair, the jury members nominated three innovations in each of the five ToyAward categories. The criteria from the preliminary round were applied as were the additional factors of safety, workmanship & quality.

The nominees for the ToyAwards 2020

Baby & Infant (0-3 years)

• Baby Walker Whale / Legler (Hall 3/A-30)
• Play & Crawl Hedgehog Mirror / Mattel (Hall 12.2/P-15)
• PLAYMOBIL 1.2.3 AQUA / PLAYMOBIL (Hall 12.2/P-07)

PreSchool (3-6 years)

• Knight’s Castle Ball Track / Gollnest & Kiesel (Hall 3/A-14)
• MAN TGS Street Sweeper / BRUDER Spielwaren (Hall 6/C-31, C-37)
• Mini Chef Bird’s Nest Café / Jet Young International (Hall 3A/D-01)

SchoolKids (6-10 years)

• Balloon Puncher / Silverlit Toys Manufactory (Hall 4A/C-10, D-19)
• Green Science / SCIENCE4YOU (Hall 5/C-23)
• Octopus Party / TREFL (Hall 10.1/F-36)

Teenager & Adults (10 years and older)

• Mystery House: Adventures in a Box / Cranio Creations (Hall 10.1/A-19)
• Proxi – Your micro:bit Coding-Robot / Franckh-Kosmos (Hall 10.0/G-02)
• Uno Braille / Mattel (Hall 12.2/P-15)

Startup

• Calculix number bricks / ESM Visions (Hall 3A/B-37)
• Pigcasso / Kade (Hall 12.0/G-03-13)
• PIXIO^® / TRENDFORMER (Hall 4A/C-29)

The ToyAwards will be presented to the winners of each category at the Opening Show of the 71^st Spielwarenmesse on 28 January 2020. The nominees will be on display at the PressPreview in the morning and at the TrendGallery in Hall 3A for the entire duration of the fair.

The ToyAwards Jury 2020

 The 16-member jury is composed of scientists, international sales agents and market researchers, as well as educationalists, a blogger and a toy safety expert.

• Dr. Maria Costa, AIJU Technological Institute, Research Manager
• Axel Dammler, iconkids & youth, Managing Director
• Andrew Dobbie, Gameplan Europe, Managing Director
• Konstantin Frishberg, Detsky Mir, Director Toys and Games Department
• Dr. Thomas Märtz, VEDES, Chief Executive Officer
• Jörg Meister, little big things, Managing Director
• Nadine Müller, Premini, Managing Director
• Thorsten Paedelt, duo schreib & spiel, Managing Director
• Jochen Pohle, EK/servicegroup, Head of Department in the business area family
• Andreas Schäfer, idee+spiel, Managing Director
• Dean Smith, jaZams, Co-owner
• Vincent Stozicky, JouéClub, France, Commercial Director
• Marietheres Waschk, Education Officer of Jugendzentren Köln (youth centres in Cologne)
• Rainer Weiskirchen, TÜV Rheinland, Press Officer
• Thomas Wodzicki, Freelance play educationalist for various institutions in Germany and abroad
• Tracy Wood, Toybuzz, Managing Director

The website www.toyaward.com contains further information about the ToyAwards, the jury and the winners of recent years.